Therapist Salary in Illinois: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

Set against their own national figures, the three Illinois medians do not hold the national order.

The counselor median of $60,730 is $1,380 above the national $59,350, and the family therapist median of $60,970 is $5,970 below the national $66,940 — which leaves them $240 apart, where nationally family therapists lead counselors by $7,590.

The social worker median of $49,960 is $10,320 below the national $60,280, and that row flips as well: nationally social workers sit $930 above counselors at the median, while in Illinois they trail counselors by $10,770.

The Illinois order is family therapists and counselors effectively tied, then social workers $10,770 to $11,010 behind.

Any single Illinois figure for the whole title would have to hide one of these positions, which is why this page shows all three.

Illinois counselors sit above the national distribution at every percentile, but by margins that vary from razor-thin to wide.

The 10th percentile of $43,010 is 10% above the national figure, but the 25th percentile of $47,390 is just 1% above, a $290 margin.

From the 25th percentile up the gap widens steadily: the median of $60,730 is 2% above the national median, the 75th percentile of $80,070 is 5% above, and the 90th percentile of $109,100 is 12% above the national $97,590, an $11,510 gap.

The Illinois distribution is also wider: the middle half spans $32,680 against the national $29,430, and the 10th-to-90th span reaches $66,090 against $58,650.

For someone weighing a counselor offer: the median benchmark sits $1,380 above national, but the 25th percentile is nearly level, within $290.

BLS estimates 20,250 counselors employed in Illinois, ranking 6th of the 50 jurisdictions with a published employment estimate, and 20th of 51 by median.

This is a combined occupation, so the figures describe every kind of counselor it pools, not one licence.

Illinois marriage and family therapists have a distinctly shaped distribution: a floor well above their national figure and a ceiling well below it.

The 10th percentile of $51,420 is 15% above the national figure and the 25th percentile of $55,420 is 11% above, but the median of $60,970 is 9% below the national median, the 75th percentile of $78,070 is 17% below the national $93,840, and the 90th percentile of $104,900 is 15% below the national $123,730.

The middle half spans $22,650, about half the national band of $43,770, and the 10th-to-90th span $53,480 against $79,080 — the occupation runs far closer together in Illinois than nationally.

The hourly median is $29.31 against $32.18 nationally.

BLS estimates 860 family therapists employed in Illinois, ranking 12th of the 40 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers in Illinois begin at the national floor and fall further behind at every point above it.

The 10th percentile of $39,910 is just $170 above the national figure.

From there the gap opens: the 25th percentile of $46,290 is 2% below, the median of $49,960 is 17% below the national median of $60,280, the 75th percentile of $69,210 is 13% below, and the 90th percentile of $79,050 is 24% below — a $25,120 gap at the ceiling, the largest state-vs-national gap on this page.

The middle half spans $22,920 against the national band of $32,660, and the 10th-to-90th span $39,140 against $64,430 — narrower than the national distribution at both the middle and the tail.

The hourly median is $24.02 against $28.98 nationally.

BLS estimates 3,460 employed in Illinois, ranking 14th of the 50 jurisdictions with a published employment estimate, and 34th of 51 by median.

Start with the occupation the job would be counted in, and compare against that row.

The counselor and family therapist benchmarks are interchangeable in practice: $60,730 and $60,970, $240 apart, so an offer near $61,000 sits at the median of either occupation.

A social work offer reads against $49,960 — an offer matching the counselor median would sit $10,770 above it.

Hourly postings read the same way: the Illinois hourly medians are $29.20 for counselors, $29.31 for family therapists and $24.02 for social workers.

The percentile a posting cites is a position in that occupation's Illinois distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at the 25th percentile says where it sits among Illinois jobs in that occupation, not a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LPCs and LCPCs with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LPC-only or LCPC-only median for Illinois.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Illinois licenses as the LMFT with an ALMFT pre-licensure tier, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what an ALMFT earns.

Clinical social workers holding the LCSW are counted either in this social worker row or in healthcare social work, depending on the setting, and LSWs are not split out either, so the $49,960 median does not describe every LCSW.

The licensure pages linked below cover what each licence requires.